Electric welding



y 2, 1938. w. LESSEL 2,123,571

ELECTRIC WELDING Filed Jan. 25, 1937 nu-212201; h/ cssal Patented July 12, 1938 UNITED STATES ELECTRIC WELDING Wolfgang Lessel, Beriin-Charlottenburg, Germany Application January 25, 1937, Serial No. 122,295 In Germany January 29, 1936 6 Claims.

In electric arc welding of copper by the Slavianoil method only those electrodes have been found to be suitable which contained in addition to copper considerable quantities of other metals, for example bronze.

As a result it has always been impossible to impart to the weld the properties of the base material being worked in a mechanical and chemical aspect).

All attempts to weld copper workpieces electrically with electrodes of pure copper, or those with very small quantities of admixtures, such as is usual in autogenous welding, have not led to satlsfactory results. In every case the welded seam showed numerous unjoined places and was so permeated with slag and pores that it possessed only low mechanical properties. These diiiiculties are brought about more particularly by the high heat conductivity of the copper, for the heat supplied to the welding placeby the arc is too rapidly led away into the workpiece so that at the welding place itself the heating is insufiicient.

Hitherto, attempts have been made to circumvent these diificulties by giving the weld place a continuous additional preheating by means of a second heat source. It was possible in this way to supply enough heat to the weld place so that, at least when using a bronze rod, a sufliciently large fusion bath could be produced, but in the case of a copper rod even the preheating was insufilcient. The preheating however is attended by certain disadvantages, such as the conseuuences of thermal expansion and the shrinkage powers of the workpiece which, in the case of rigid or stressed pieces, can lead to the formation of cracks. The advantages of the metal are weldlng (point-like heat supply at the weld place and consequently low thermal stresses) were, therefore, completely annulled.

The problem underlying the present invention, therefore, is to bring about the advantages of metal arc welding for the welding of workpieces of copper. According to the above statements it depends on the knowledge that the increase of heat supply necessary on account of the properties of copper must, if the preheating is to be dispensed with, be effected by the are alone. First it was ascertained by systematicexperiments that the necessary high quantity of energy (apparent from the physical constants) which converts the copper into the fused melt can be transferred only with the aid of a very long arc if no additional energy source is to be used. In contradistinction to the short arcs of 2 to at most 5 millimeters length hitherto exclusively used in metal arc welding, the process of the present invention contemplates an are at least 10 to approximately 40 millimeters long, and in special cases the arc may be longer. A long are of this kind can of course be produced only with current of comparatively high tension. The present invention, therefore, employs current of at least 40 volts, preferably 7080 volts, but still higher tensions may be used.

However, when a bare copper electrode is used for welding according to this method then the long path of the fused metal traverses considerable oxidation and gas absorption takes place, with the result that seams are obtained having many pores and containing oxide (e. g. lower oxide). 'I'he sensitivity of the copper in this respect is indeed well known from its metallurgy. Moreover, an arc of such length can scarcely be maintained even with the usual thickly ensheathed electrodes, since it is very restless, dances about and splashes the electrode material melting ofi. Since the are continuously changes its place of contact with the workpiece proper fusion of the base material cannot occur. 7

These difiiculties, however, are removed by the present invention.

In developing thepresent invention an. auxiliary Wire was used which comprised-a rod of electrolytic or slightly alloyed copper, such as is usual in the autogenous welding of copper. Such auxiliary Wires as in well known alloys in general contain less than 2% of impurities. Owing to such small alloy constituents the gas solubility and oxide formation are already diminished and the flow improved. In the course of the experiments it was found that for special purposes (overhead welding and others) the rod of the electrode according to the invention may also with advantage consist of bronze.

Heretofore the ensheathing mass for copper electrodes was composed according to principles for the ensheathing of steel electrodes. In de veloping the present invention the proved fiuxing agents for autogenous welding were used. These fluxing agents chiefly consist for example of a mixture of boron compounds and alkali phosphates with smaller additions of fluorides and chlorides. The basic mixture of these fluxing agents is, as is well known, so chosen that they melt at a comparatively low temperature and also are suitable for alloys which become liquid. at 850-900 C.

By varying this mixture, such as by increasing the content of diflicultly fusible alkali phosphates, fusion point and temperature of action were disposed in the neighbourhood f the fusion point of the copper. The melting point interval .amounts to about 850-1060 C. The composition the most important characteristic feature of the invention so that when used in welding the sheathing is fused ofi later than the metal rod and to such an extent that the sheathing forms a tubular or hose-like end in which the are travels. The lengthof this tubeamounts to one to six times the diameter of the metal rod.

By this means the following advantages are attained:

1. The are becomes steady and is guided in a definite direction (direction of the axis of the electrode).

2. The drops of the electrode melting on no longer splash about. The drops areguidedin a,

definite direction by the tube (like the ball in a pistol barrel), namely in the direction of the arc,

with the result that theyhit the place of the workpiece fused. by the arc. I

3. The drops are withdrawn from the influence oi the air, in that initially they-move in the tube-like end of the sheathing and later in the interior of the arc.

By this means the weld formed is tight and tree from oxide (e. g. lower oxide) and everywhere a satisfactory union is produced. The formation of the tubular-like end on welding with an electrode according to the invention is attained in the first place by the choice and the quantity of the added high-melting alkali phosphates and similar salts, and secondly by the regulation of the wall thickness of the sheathing; and, thirdly, by adjusting these two circumstances the electrodes can be extensively adapted for various practical requirements.

The application of the sheathing mass described above to the electrode rod can be efiected,

for example, by dissolving or suspending the mass in a varnish of alcohol and nitrocellulose and then repeatedly dipping the metal rod of for example 4 millimeters diameter therein until the total diameter of the electrode amounts to 6-7 millimeters.

A further characteristic of the inventionconsists in the application of a separate additional layer onto the metal rod, which will still further improve the protection of the metal fused off from the wire from oxidation. By exhaustive experiments it has been found that ensheathing substances which have reducing properties or evolve inert gases in the hot lead to the formation of a gas stream during the welding which encloses the end of the metal wire melting of? and the arc in a tube-like manner and protects them.

In the accompanying drawing this phenomenon is shown diagrammatically and in the example illustrated i is the copper rod, dis a thin sheathing of slag-forming and flow-promoting agents, say of the above composition. 8 is a casing of a mass which produces a reducing or inert gas, and 5 is the outermost casing, which, in this example, has the same composition as the cesing 2 and forms the tube-like end during the welding. The layer 2 mayQfor example, be produced by dipping the electrode in a sodium 0x alate solution; however, all other masses may also be ,used which separate ofl a reducing or araawr action of its heat the end of the rod i melts ofi and forms the metal stream t which is mixed with slag from'the layer 2. The layer 3, which is composed of substances which evolve a reducing gas, melts somewhat earlier than the metal rod 5 and gives up its gas in the annular-shaped hollow space 5, whence it streams downwardly and outwardly and forms the ring-like gas stream i) which surrounds the are 8 and so protects the welding material it flowing within the arc from contact with the air andconsequently from oxidation.

it is known from iron welding to permit the ensheathing mass to project crater-like beyond the end of the electrode (Kielberg). Such crater,

however, 'is merely, the upwardly directed electrode ends, which form a container for the drops to prevent their flowing down. In complete contradistinction to such crater formation, the tube according to the invention has the object of promoting the movement oi the drops and furthermore of rendering possible the employment of a long are.

The invention was also employed on alloys having high copper content, e. g. bronzes, the alloying for the electrode rods corresponding to the work material to be welded. The temperature of the action and the melting point of the ensheathing mass were likewise brought into conformity with the melting points of these working materials, according to the above directions. In this way it is possible to edect useful welds on these working materials by following the fundamental idea of the invention, or adapting electric arc. welding for use in connection with workpieces of metals of very high heat conductivity.

I claim:

1. An electrode for arc welding metals of high thermal conductivity, such as copper and its alloys, comprising a metal rod in a sheathing of non-conducting material which melts of? subsequent to the melting of the metal rod, the melting of the sheathing being suficiently retarded so that during the welding a tube of sheathing material projects beyond the end of the metal rod a distance of not more than about six times the diameter of the metal red, the arc and fluid metal travelling along said tube to the weld place.

2. An electrode for arc welding metals of high thermal conductivity comprising, a metal rod as core, a layer thereon-comprising at least one sub-s stance capable of evolving non-oxidizing gas under the action of heat, and an outer sheathing of a non-conducting material the melting of which being sufiioiently retarded, so that during the welding a tube of sheathing material projects beyond the end of the metal rod and the inner sheathing a distance of about one to six times the 3. An electrode for arc welding metals of high thermal conductivity comprising a metal red as core, a layer of slag-forming and flow-promoting agents thereon, on the latter layer a layer commeson prising at least one substance capable of evolving non-oxidizing see under the action of heat, and en outer sheathing of s. non-conducting material the melting of which being sufiiclently tetarded so that durlngthe welding a. tube of sheathing materiel projects beyond the end. of the metal rod and the inner sheathing & distance of about one to six times the diameter of the metal rod and the em and fluid metal, in a stream of nonoxiollzlng ges, travel alone; sedfi; tube of non conducting material at. An electrode for are welding metals of high thermal conductivity, such as copper, comprising a copper rocl es core, a layer of sleg=formine and flow-promoting agents thereon, on the letter layer & layer comprising at leest one substence capable of evolving non-oxidizing gas under the action of heat and an outer sheathing consisting of home sold 50 pests, sodium phosphate 35 parts, common salt 6 parts, oryolite 5 parts and glass 3 ports, so that when the electrode is to we the ore end fioicl mete-l travel is e stx'esm o2 nonees along as tolee fcmoeo by the outer sheathing at the end; of the electrode as e l of its retarded copabllity of melting oi.

5. An electrode for arc welding metels of high thermal conductivity such as copper one alloys thereof comprising, a metel KGa'l assessed in a sheathing of non-conducting meterlsl sfoicz is adapted to melt subseouent to the melting ct said metal root, the melting of said. sheathing being sufllciently retarded so that during welding process :2, tube-like encl of the sheathing material projects beyond the cool of the metal rod at a distance of about one to six times the diameter of said meta-Isl rod whereby the ass the fluid metal will be confined within and travel along said tube to the weld 6. An electrode es claimed claim sheathing of which compslees substances w under the ection of best evolve eomoxlcll gas and which evolve tlns e somewhat below the melt-mg point oi rooln 

